Monday, June 26, 2006

Nosegay.

I was cleaning out some files and came across three bits of poems that I couldn’t recollect writing. Only one of them was complete and after some thought, I realized that it was something I had written in response to a challenge to use a specific word. Nosegay, I think.

Anyway here it is:

When the dress is wilted, The ribbons no longer bright.When the slightly ratty faces Are not softened by the light.When the cheery nosegayNo longer seems so gay.And all the celebrations Seem many years away.The harshest of realityHas clearly come to call.And the wallflower-y girlsNo longer press the wall.The one shining momentHas surely come and gone.But the marriage license, darlingThat will linger on.

I rather like it. But I feel the need to defend it by saying it was written in five minutes, so it’s not…well, it is what it is. And on re-reading it, I realize that it can go both ways. I think I intended it to be a snarky, Dorothy Parker-esque comment on weddings. How the wedding day is all flowers and ribbons but when all that is gone, you’re still married. And maybe all you really wanted was the flowers and the ribbons. On the other hand, I suppose you can read it as a comfirmation of that fact that once all the pretty stuff is gone, it’s the important stuff that sticks around.

hmmm... I got that the wallflower-y girls have the last laugh as they may not have shone at the ball, but they are more often the ones with the happy, lasting marriages. You also pulled a James McMurty and rhymed gay with (nose)gay. Heh. (I'm back to reading the blogs--I must have a life! Now on to Jody's.)